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Sheriff's Cmdr. John Thornburg said deputies were still out attempting to find the two jumpers' bodies on Monday.

Their names were not released.

Tom Aiello, a friend of the victims, said, "Two beautiful people are gone."

Aiello said that the man and woman were, "experienced jumpers and were operating well within their limits" when they leaped from the 280-foot-high Bixby Bridge.

"The jump was certainty within their capabilities. Unfortunately accidents do happen sometimes," Aiello said.

BASE jumper Liz Freeman said the man was a BASE jumping instructor from Europe.

BASE is an acronym that stands for four types of fixed objects that jumpers can leap from: building, antenna, span and Earth.

The Sheriff's Office is holding a press conference at 1 p.m. Monday to provide more information. Check back here on KSBW.com for updates.

The incident in Big Sur happened the same month that a Santa Cruz man died while wingsuit-flying down remote cliffs on the Arizona-Utah border. Wingsuit flying is one of the most extreme forms of BASE jumping.

Mathew Kenney, 29, jumped from a 1,000-foot0high cliff in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, a rugged, desolate landscape that is hard to navigate. Kenney hit a rock wall.

Kenney's friend, Matt Frohlich, said he was an experienced, talented jumper who had traveled around the world. Wingsuit fliers glide frighteningly close to cliffs and trees before deploying their suits that resemble flying squirrels.